Summary

Alois Podhajsky competes in the dressage arena at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He and his mount Nero are unlikely competitors. Nero is a rejected racing horse and cavalry mount. Alois was forced to abandon horse jumping after a back injury and was expelled from cavalry school. But after discovering their combined skill in dressage, they are Olympic favorites. Alois is proud of his Austrian roots and his country's riding traditions; he joined the army cavalry during World War I at just nineteen years old.

At the 1936 Olympics, the Germans are his stiffest competition and political rival: "For centuries," the narrator states, "men had measured their military might by the worth of their horses" (8). At the end of the judges table, the organizer of the Olympic equestrian events, Gustav Rau, watches Alois and Nero perform flawlessly. When a German judge...